Contemporâneos 2021

contemporaries 2021

My commentary

In a visit to my home, the curator Renato Gonda expressed the desire that the works presented in the exhibition were, primarily, pieces made during the locdown induced by the Coronavirus pandemic that lasted many months.

At that time I had some drawings, installation projects, and videos, in general thought for a long time. Years in some cases. 

From what we examined, the closest to the curatorial criteria was the video O Vento Uiva, ouça. Faced with the conditions offered by the Cultural Center, which did not offer equipment for projection, we opted for the installation Mascara (Mask), derived from an old, diffuse idea, which would make use of the video we mentioned.
During the conversation with the curator, my idea went through mask, mascar in Latin, person in Etruscan and Sudario (Shroud) as a kind of mask, in the sense of person(a). Very convenient, since everyone in the audience was wearing a mask. I was the only exception

From the video I extracted an image, a frame, comparable to an Etruscan mask and I put it side by side with another one also comparable to a mask, Nocturnus Itineri Sudario, Secondusfrom the Sudario set. Next I will project part of the video O Vento Uiva, ouça (The Wind Howls, listen), to be shown by appointment and with our own equipment.

One can consider that sudario, shrouds, when they hold signs of the dead person that they cover, are comparable to masks, the Etruscan mortuary masks, in the case of my choice.

Mask, from Old Latin mascar, person from Etruscan, from which derives persona (per sona,  sounds through. What tells). 
In Contemporary 2021 I presented the set as a "work in progress", since it resulted from an accumulation of images that occurred to me together with the thought I described above.  As it is my habit, this inpirational ensemble should result in something more solid. A video, perhaps, that occurred to me when I was explaining what was there to the audience, in the round of talks announced in the event's program.

_{Gabriel Borba, 2021}